What book are you reading?

Developereo said:
The movies butchered not just the story, which is usual for movies anyway, but also her ideological message, about which she felt very passionate.
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Yup! Eg. White washed everyone. LeGuin's world is VERY detailed and diverse and specific people are of specific "race" for a very good reason.
 
VersusChristi said:
Yup! Eg. White washed everyone. LeGuin's world is VERY detailed and diverse and specific people are of specific "race" for a very good reason.
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The racial aspect, the feminist aspect, the theological commentary; she was a complex woman and used her writing to express herself.

Of course, I missed all of this as a teenage reader. Her books are thoroughly enjoyable even at a superficial level. :)
 
_NOBODY_ said:
I finally received my copy of The North Water. This is the novel what the novel is about:

"The North Water" by Ian McGuire is a historical novel set in the 19th century. The story follows a whaling expedition to the Arctic and revolves around the crew of a whaling ship named the Volunteer. The narrative unfolds against the harsh backdrop of the Arctic environment, exploring themes of survival, morality, and the darker aspects of human nature. The novel delves into the complexities of the characters' relationships and the challenges they face in the unforgiving Arctic landscape. McGuire's writing combines elements of adventure, suspense, and psychological depth, creating a gripping and atmospheric tale.

I am excited to read this after I finish Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.

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@RescueRanger @Nilgiri @Shanlung
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Rest assured that in time I will read and enjoy this.

But I be leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow for a week. So this book got to wait.

Some banking matters to resolve AND a revisit to the place 2nd in my heart where I stayed in for years until 2019

An interesting encounter I had yesterday as I went to change for HKD

[1/12, 23:34] Mountain Dragon: As I be leaving for Hong Kong for a few days, I went to money changer at Jurong Point to change a bit of money.

But money changer only had $500 HKD notes , so instead of the $200SGD, I changed $171.55 to get 2 $500 HKD.

Long time since I hold $500 HKD. I recalled one evening when dear wife and I were living in Hong Kong. I was a Project Director on the Guangzhou MRT project and weekends, I go to Hong Kong to stay with dear wife. I think that was in about 1994 . At that time, any $ was a lot lot more bigger than now. A decent lunch in HK be about HKD 12 . We just finished a good dinner that night and I feeling good with the world and we walking back to our Hong Kong apartment. It was a very cold December night. I saw an old lady clothed in rags and gathering tin cans and I felt sorry for her. I thought I give her a nice surprise. I took out a $500 HKD and hold it to her. She looked at the money suspiciously, took it and threw it to the ground and said she did not need my sympathy.

I was surprised and shocked. I picked back my money and walked away with my wife.

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Shanlung said:
And if you like tales where fair winds and prayers bring the ships and sailors about,
Of Aubrey, captain in the Royal Navy, and Dr. Stephen Maturin
The best books by far will be the series written by Patrick O'Brian.

Patrick O’Brian wrote them and at his death in 2000, there were 20 and one unfinished. The series follows Aubrey and his friend, Stephen Maturin, a physician, naturalist and spy, through the Napoleonic wars and up the ranks of the Royal Navy.

O’Brian wrote a whole intricate world, a comprehensive picture of 18th- and early 19th-century naval warfare, laced with intrigue and adventure.

Lucky Jack, bluff and belligerent, an old-school Tory but a man of parts too. Maturin’s duality, a man of science and enlightenment by turns enchanted, exasperated and appalled by his friend. After the battle, they play violin and cello together, playing their ship into the sunset.

You be spell bound. And your life will consist of getting one after another of that series.

And I managed to get them all, but now sadly scattered in different countries that I lived in.


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And another book that should be on your reading list.

A book that should be read by any sailor that needed fair winds and worthy of his salt

en.wikipedia.org

Two Years Before the Mast - Wikipedia​


en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org

Two Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.

The journey[edit]​

Outbound[edit]​

In the book, which takes place between 1834 and 1836, Dana gives a vivid account of "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is." He sails from Boston to South America and around Cape Horn to California. Dana's ship was on a voyage to trade goods from the United States for the Mexican colonial Californian California missions' and ranchos' cow hides. They traded at the ports in San Diego Bay, San Pedro Bay, Santa Barbara Channel, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. The provenance of this history is well supported by records showing the company of Sprague and James building and launching a ship named Pilgrim in 1825 in Medford, Massachusetts.

California[edit]​

California hide trade: droughing (carrying) hides from an Alta California shore to boat, for export
See also: California hide trade
Dana arrived in Alta California when it was a province of Mexico, and no longer Spanish colonial Las Californias. He gives descriptions of landing at each of the ports up and down the California coast as they existed then. The ports served (south to north) the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, Mission San Juan Capistrano, Pueblo de Los Angeles (and Mission San Gabriel Arcángel), Mission Santa Barbara (and Presidio of Santa Barbara), Presidio of Monterey, and Presidio of San Francisco with their very small settlements and surrounding large Mexican land grant ranchos. He also describes the coastal indigenous peoples, the Mexican Californios culture, and the immigrants' and traders' influences from other locales.

The headland bluffs near Mission San Juan Capistrano presented an obstacle to taking the cow hides to the beach for subsequent loading onto the ship. So Dana, along with others of the Pilgrim's and later Alert's crews, tosses the hides from the bluffs, which he compared to flying a kite without a string. Some hides get stuck part way down the cliff and Dana is lowered with ropes to retrieve them. The headlands, along with the adjacent present day city, took on Dana's name as Dana Point.

Dana learned Spanish from the Californian Mexicans and became an interpreter for his ship. He befriended Kanaka (native people of the Sandwich Islands—Hawaiian Islands) sailors in the ports, one of whose lives Dana would save when his captain would as soon see him die. He was a witness to two floggings of Pilgrim crew members by Captain Thompson, which he believed to be undeserved and unjustified, but was powerless to do anything about them, as the captain was the law aboard ship. He spent a season on the San Diego shore preparing hides for shipment to Boston, and his journey home. Dana also makes a tellingly accurate prediction of San Francisco's future growth and significance.

Homebound[edit]​

Of the return trip around Cape Horn, on his new ship the Alert, but with the same Captain Thompson, in the middle of the Antarctic winter, Dana gives the classic account. He describes terrifying storms and incredible beauty, giving vivid descriptions of icebergs, which he calls incomparable. The most incredible part perhaps is the weeks and weeks it took to negotiate passage against winds and storms—all the while having to race up and down the ice-covered rigging to furl and unfurl sails. At one point he has an infected tooth, and his face swells up so that he is unable to work for several days, despite the need for all hands. Upon reaching Staten Island (known today as Isla de los Estados), they know they have nearly come around the Horn. After the Horn has been rounded he describes the scurvy that afflicts members of the crew. There is another flogging by the captain, this time of the steward, for fighting and threatening to spill blood, but Dana seems to believe it was more justified than the previous incident in California. In White-Jacket, Herman Melville wrote, "But if you want the best idea of Cape Horn, get my friend Dana's unmatchable Two Years Before the Mast. But you can read, and so you must have read it. His chapters describing Cape Horn must have been written with an icicle."[1] In his Concluding Chapter, Dana discusses his thoughts on the captain's use of corporal punishment, the possibility of laws to limit the captain's power, contrasting with the necessity of the captain to have complete authority and control of the ship, the rights of seamen, contrasting with their general reputation as a class, and aspects of any legal recourse they might have in bringing an abusive captain to justice. He also advances his ideas of promoting more religious instruction among seamen, Sunday religious observance by captains, and the benefits to be derived by more compassionate captains and religiously disciplined seamen, in bringing the men to more willingness to obey orders, which he believed would greatly reduce the necessity and incidence of punishment.
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Fly through a wooden warship from the age of sail!
 
Joe Shearer said:
Interesting.
I haven't seen the video. Any price indicated?
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No, but you can purchase it online.

In a nutshell, he was amazed by the Islamic concept of the political system and some misconceptions in terms of theological and academic aspects.
 
Nilgiri said:
Let us know what you think of it.

When these stories take a more concentrated form w.r.t a character is when they really retain in my memory with time.

Like comparing and contrasting the broodiness of Ahab vs Nemo among other similarities and differences. Though nemo in the end is a far more complicated character overall.

Whaling has a disturbing history to get into, but it was gentrified when I first came across it in song as young kid....that I still know so well with its catchy tune...

Strike up the band. Here comes a sailor,
Cash in his hand, just off a whaler.
Stand in a row. Don't let him go.
Jack's a cinch, but every inch a sailor.

It was from collection of Max Fleischer "sing along" cartoon shorts we had on VHS.

In school, my Pakistani mate would annoy me a ton with another song on that collection.... "mama's little baby loves shortenin shortenin.....mama's little baby loves shortenin bread"

He would sing that again and again (especially one year we shared a table at class) and annoy the hell out of me lol.

Only much later in life I would realise the max fleischer shorts were some of his early work (pre dating popeye which he is most known for).... and the jack the sailor song was actually much older one he augmented with animation....

I found an old recording of it and was happily surprised the ending chord of the song is exact one that max then took as the starting chord of popeye the sailor theme haha. I was a big fan of popeye as a kid...this connection was fun to stumble into later in life.
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Are you into sea shanties?
 
_NOBODY_ said:
Are you into sea shanties?
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Yes very much so. The one that was blasted into my ears the most by far was by a college room-mate who's dad served in RCN. .... "Barrett's privateers".

This traces back to the privateering (from the British North American side - that would become the Canadian side later) that commenced against the Yanks when they started the rebellion against the Empire (and their far larger privateering enterprise given fledgling nation didn't have warships but rather had to make do with converted merchant ships)....and renewed this at some length later in 1812 too (and the time period inbetween too) given disparity that still existed between RN and USN. @VCheng

I actually know the deep history of the defences the British made (in response to both 1776 and 1812) over time in the 19th century, in essentially a Vauban kind of way (fortifications, barriers and canals).... to essentially delay the Americans as long as possible (till the British navy could arrive and reinforce especially through the canals) in any war starting again (since US was actively warring with Mexico and then itself as well in 19th century...along with the acquisition of Alaska...... so war with Canada was not out of the question entirely).

This was when the British navy and Britain itself was still quite powerful compared to the US. The US would outgrow this (in naval domain one must read AT Mahan to get the larger background for 19th century approach by US and how this would change to adopt the force projection approach of the British in the subsequent century).

So Canadian (and later British) friendship would largely be a fait accompli relatively speaking in late 19th and early 20th century because of established US strength, economic size and commerce....relegating the many features of the earlier tense periods to annals of history. But they still do persist in institutions that draw from longer timeframe of history.....as better off we all are from the friendship today.

Anyway heres the song (a fictional account, but based on many real events that did happen), it is extremely well entrenched within RCN especially:


Here's a good book I read on larger subject recently (from the American perspective mostly, but good insight given on the larger topic):

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Nilgiri said:
Yes very much so. The one that was blasted into my ears the most by far was by a college room-mate who's dad served in RCN. .... "Barrett's privateers".

This traces back to the privateering (from the British North American side - that would become the Canadian side later) that commenced against the Yanks when they started the rebellion against the Empire (and their far larger privateering enterprise given fledgling nation didn't have warships but rather had to make do with converted merchant ships)....and renewed this at some length later in 1812 too (and the time period inbetween too) given disparity that still existed between RN and USN. @VCheng

I actually know the deep history of the defences the British made (in response to both 1776 and 1812) over time in the 19th century, in essentially a Vauban kind of way (fortifications, barriers and canals).... to essentially delay the Americans as long as possible (till the British navy could arrive and reinforce especially through the canals) in any war starting again (since US was actively warring with Mexico and then itself as well in 19th century...along with the acquisition of Alaska...... so war with Canada was not out of the question entirely).

This was when the British navy and Britain itself was still quite powerful compared to the US. The US would outgrow this (in naval domain one must read AT Mahan to get the larger background for 19th century approach by US and how this would change to adopt the force projection approach of the British in the subsequent century).

So Canadian (and later British) friendship would largely be a fait accompli relatively speaking in late 19th and early 20th century because of established US strength, economic size and commerce....relegating the many features of the earlier tense periods to annals of history. But they still do persist in institutions that draw from longer timeframe of history.....as better off we all are from the friendship today.

Anyway heres the song (a fictional account, but based on many real events that did happen), it is extremely well entrenched within RCN especially:


Here's a good book I read on larger subject recently (from the American perspective mostly, but good insight given on the larger topic):

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Right now I need to buy a book on “How to shutup and appease geniuses”. You got any recommendations on that buddy? 😁
 
Nilgiri said:
Bhai, no worries. This is meaty, leisurely conversation in the end (and the larger topic is about books after all anyway) and time comes to us however and whenever it does in the end to express it.



I don't think the social conditioning was good enough (especially long term). Huxley at moments specifically mentions the use of soma and implies the reason for this (what's coming in from the edges, jungian or not)....i.e the "uncomfy emotions" that soma addresses (or seems to address, since really its not been that long passage of time and mustapha mond seems to realise this as well).

We are emotional beings in the end you see....this is the most day to day way we harness the metaphysical in the end. Things like love, fear, mortality and belonging that give sense to larger constructs of meaning and purpose. The meaning and purpose that the totalitarian state has stripped away....i.e your life is just second 0 to second 3 billion or whatever and only the state understands why that is and fills in that time with what you have been alloted to live it by the state....you are not to think about it or dwell upon it (i.e the source of the uncomfy emotions for soma to counter as soon as they start).

The irony and hypocrisy is exposed by the highest state edifice (Mond et al) meeting with John..... in that these matters are permitted only at that very high echelon (i.e these are ultimately great things permitted to only them, but denied to all else).

Huxley implies by the presence of castes in this world, the stratification of intellect vs labour (among other things) in the activities of occupational and existential time would pose too much a jarring upset to social conditioning methods found thus far by the state (tabula rasa control + soma + extreme epicureanism) without castes.

I am inclined to agree with him as time for intellectual endeavour largely originated from organisational labour (especially farming) and surpluses created by it to then sustain it....i.e these originated with stratification baked in and present a very long time (and then with the industrial revolution adding its force to this as well)..... till the totalitarian state/dystopia came to be.

So this would just bleed over past what soma could address if one "alpha" is made to work an intellectual job and another "alpha" is made to work a physical job.....i.e the soma could not soak up the emotional consequences of the intellectual surplus of the latter. That to me is why lower castes are engineered to begin with by the totalitarian state along with the power dynamic to dispense and launder among them.
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If Alphas were destined to eventually break free from the shackles of their condition then how come only Helmholtz Watson was able to do it on his own? Bernard too was able to break the shackles of his condition but only due to the fact he was an outcast. A society entirely comprised of Alphas can work if different Alphas are given different conditioning from birth based on the jobs that they will be doing in the future. Let's suppose that this isn't possible then surely an agreement can be reached between the ordinary Alphas and the Alpha controllers. I refuse to believe that the Alphas would be so self-destructive as to not negotiate for the greater good. Also, not all Alphas are equal. We see that very clearly in the world of Brave New World hence why a hierarchy exists in all the castes. It is almost impossible for equality to exist and even when it does exist, it is only for a finite period until it inevitably vanishes. Humans can only grant equal opportunities. Additionally, in order for a society of entirely Alphas to exist, the controllers will have to surrender portions of their power. You are absolutely correct in saying that the society of only Alphas will challenge the authority of the totalitarian regime. I thoroughly despise the controllers for choosing stability at all costs over prosperity, the price for this was stagnation. What would you choose if you were one of the controllers?

Also, did you check out Psycho-Pass?
 
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